One night, while I was in university, my friend Diane and I were walking back to my place from the club where we had gone dancing. She wanted to stop at 7/11 for a cup of coffee, but had a lit cigarette which she wasn't allowed to bring inside. She handed it to me and said "here, hold this". I stood there outside the 7/11 while she bought her coffee at 2.45 AM, holding a lit cigarette like it was a stick of dynamite. I tried to look natural - you know, like it wasn't my FIRST TIME holding a cigarette at the age of 21 - but was fascinated by the ominous death-stick in my fingers. After a few minutes, when I was growing increasingly worried about the glowing red ring creeping ever closer to my hand, a kid about 15 approached and asked if he could bum a cigarette. I looked up in surprise and said automatically, "I don't smoke."

He looked at the cigarette in my hand. Looked up at me. Said "F*ck you, lady."

I once was sitting in my wheelchair outside 7 -11 and a teenager tried to beg a smoke from me. I responded by saying, 'You realize that you are begging from a cripple, do you realize how far you've fallen?" .... Now I was only joking but he burst into tears and ran off. I'm guessing he's the CEO of a small company right now and that's the inspirational story he will tell his grand kids. 'The night the cripple saved me from myself.'